Project-Based Learning in Online Speaking Class: Interesting or Boring?

Project-based learning (PjBL) has been widely recognized as one of effective teaching methods used in many speaking classes in Indonesia. It has also been theoretically and practically well-documented in a myriad of publications. However, little discussed the students’ feeling in fulfilling the speaking projects, mainly in the online learning classes. Therefore, the present study attempts to examine the students’ emotions during accomplishing those projects in one semester. Grounded on Pekrun’s emotion foundation[1], this exploratory case study employed an open-ended questionnaire administered to 29 university students in one speaking class to explore their anger, anxiety, enjoyment, hope, hopelessness, pride, relief, and shame during the online speaking class. To analyse the data, Miles and Huberman qualitative analysis framework was employed. The findings of this study informed that most students found they were both excited and challenged depending on particular conditions they encountered when doing the projects. The excitement occurred when they experienced satisfaction during the project accomplishments. Meanwhile, they felt it stimulating when they found their projects unsatisfactory. Moreover, they also expected perfection since they valued the result over the process. Pedagogical implications and further studies are also presented.